German flagship companies secure jobs and invest disproportionately high amounts in Austria

The Institute for Industrial Research (IWI) examined the importance of four Austrian subsidiaries of German multinationals i.e. Siemens, Infineon, Boehringer Ingelheim and Henkel. These four companies are responsible for securing some 42,000 jobs in Austria directly or indirectly, and cooperate with 113 academic institutions. Their tax and social security contributions amount to more than EUR 1 billion.

“When we process contract orders here, we also employ about another 10,000 companies, including 6,600 business partners from Austria”, says Siemens Austria CEO Wolfgang Hesoun. About 10,200 people work for Siemens Austria.

The semiconductor group Infineon, which has a workforce of about 3,500 employees in Austria, supports projects designed to stimulate interest in young children and youth for mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology (MINT). Since 2014, the company has reached out to 20,000 young people, says Sabine Herlitschka, CEO of Infineon Technologies Austria.

Like the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Regional Center Vienna (RCV), Infineon ranks among the most research-intensive companies in Austria. According to the study, Boehringer Ingelheim invests EUR 200 million each year in research, generating revenue of EUR 1.7 billion in Austria.

The consumer goods producer Henkel CEE invests about EUR 10 million annually in its Vienna production facility, where close to 250,000 tons of detergents and cleaners such as Persil are manufactured each year.